adelphi and partners hold climate-fragility training in Nepal
Nepal and Afghanistan face a number of serious climate-fragility risks, so adelphi brought together regional government officials and NGO experts for a training in Kathmandu on 9 November 2019.
Nepal and Afghanistan – as well as their South Asian neighbours - face a number of serious climate-fragility risks. For example, in Nepal, floods and landslides have made it harder for some people to make a living and forced them to consider migrating to other areas of the country. Meanwhile in Afghanistan, increasingly frequent droughts are encouraging farmers to resort to more drought-resistant crops, such as poppy plants, which can boost the drug economy.
In order to improve the region’s ability to adapt to climate change, adelphi, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and Practical Action Nepal brought together experts from the Afghani and Nepalese governments, as well as local and national civil society organisations, international organisations and donors, and the academia, to analyse and discuss the knock-on consequences of climate change.
The training, which took place at the Hotel Greenwich in Kathmandu on November 9th, was based on an Integrated Climate-Fragility Risk Assessment tool that links peacebuilding and climate change adaption, developed by UNEP and adelphi as part of the EU-funded Climate Change and Fragility project.
Participants highlighted the importance of addressing the social dimension of climate challenges and gave examples of specific experiences and projects at the nexus of climate and security. As Dr. Beatrice Mosello of adelphi put it, “It is important to understand how climate change interacts with other drivers or risk. Without quantifying these trends, the world will continue to underestimate the scale of climate change.”
This was just the first of several trainings and workshops in South Asia planned for the rest of 2019. Stay tuned for the launch of adelphi’s Climate Security Expert Network website, where you can find fact sheets and detailed risk reports on the climate-fragility risks in chosen countries.
On 25 January 2019, the UN Security Council held an open debate to discuss the security implications of climate-related disaster events. The meeting, initiated by the Dominican Republic, underscored the global nature of climate-related disasters. Most speakers highlighted the need for better climate risk management as an important contribution to safeguarding international peace and security. The debate marks the beginning of a year in which climate security ranks high on the UN’s agenda.
Today, Friday 25th January 2019, the UN Security Council will hold an open debate addressing the impacts of climate-related disasters on international peace and security (at 4pm CET and 10am EST). President Danilo Medina of the Dominican Republic will chair the meeting, which will also include the participation of several member states at ministerial level.
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